1-2-3 Study Community Helpers and Shapes With Me!

Whenever I'm working on a theme, I try to design things that cover a variety of standards. 

Making a booklet featuring community helpers that would incorporate the 8 2D flat shapes, that students need to recognize, was a lot of fun. 

I could have listed a lot of community helpers who work with a rectangle shape, but thought a teacher using their blackboard, was the most appropriate.

This activity will help with the Common Core State Standard:K.G.1 as well as a variety of reading standards.

Students read the sentences; trace and write the shape word, trace and draw the shape, and then cut & glue the appropriate picture to the box.

The booklet makes a nice Daily 5 activity.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers Take Shape easy reader.

After I completed the 2D shape booklet, I thought it would be fun to design a community helper easy reader featuring 3D shapes.

Click on the link to view/download Community Helpers Shape Up.

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"Be a rainbow in someone elses cloud." -Maya Angelou

1-2-3 Come Do More Community Helper Activities With Me!

Scroll down if you missed yesterday's Community Helpers article. 

As promised, here are a few more community helper activities to round out your studies.

If there is something specific you're looking for, that I didn't cover, feel free to shoot me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do.diane@teachwithme.com

I have so enjoyed designing community helper - themed items.

An interesting and fun way to study community helpers is to compare and contrast them. 

An easy way to do this, is by using a Venn diagram.

I've made 11 different Venns comparing 22 community helpers, and included a blank template if students want to choose 2 others that are not provided.

To explain and demonstrate the lesson, put one up on your white board and do as a whole group.

Afterwards, children partner up and choose a Venn diagram that they will fill in together. 

Each child does their "different" half of the diagram, and then they take turns writing the similarities in the "same" section of the Venn diagram.

Children share their diagrams with the class.  Display them in the hall, on a bulletin board, or collate them into a class booklet.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers Venn Diagram packet. 

I've also designed a picture and word card sorting activity entitled "Tools of the Trade." 

Children place the appropriate "tools of the trade" picture cards that are associated with a community helper, on a sorting mat. 

There are 85 picture cards to choose from, 10 sorting mats + community helper word cards.

Click on the link to view/download Community Helpers' Tools of the Trade activity packet.

Another fun game is "Name That Community Helper."  The teacher or students read 19 clue cards. The first child with the correct answer, writes it on the card.

There are also more than enough pictures of community helpers, to make a class-set of "Popsicle-stick puppets."  (Teachers laminate, cut out and glue a community helper to a Popsicle stick.)

Before the game begins, teachers pass the community helper "Popsicle puppets" to their students.

Children hold up their community helper puppet when the appropriate clue card is read.

Click on the link to view/download the Name That Community Helper packet.

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My "Pin it" button is at the top of the page.

"Don't be afraid to give up the good, to go for the great!" -Kenny Rogers

1-2-3 Come Learn About Community Helpers With Me!

For a social studies lesson, many teachers choose to study community helpers. 

I've had quite a few requests for community helper activites, so I decided to design a nice variety of items incorporating the Common Core whenever I could.

To get the ball rolling, I spent a kajillion hours online, at the bookstore and reading at the library, to compile a bibliography of 63 of my favorite Community Helper books.

Summer is the perfect time to add to your classroom library via garage sales, and introducing a unit with books, is a wonderful way to get children excited.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers bibliography.

I also wanted to make an alphabetical list of all the community helpers/occupations I could think of, so that students could make an ABC booklet, ask about community helpers and jobs that they were not familiar with, and use the list to do a variety of writing activities, including what they'd like to be when they grow up.

From astronauts to zookeepers, I came up with a list of over 300 community helpers/occupations.

Click on the link to view/download the alphabetical list of community helpers/occupations.

I love dj Inkers artwork and am thrilled to have her permission to use it to design lessons for you. She has a variety of licenses available.

Her community helpers, done with bears, were perfect to make picture word cards, that can be used for your word wall or pocket chart.

I've included a 3-page tip list of what else you can use the cards for, including writing prompts, puzzles and games.

There are also several booklet covers, so you can make individual or a whole group class book.

Click on the link to view/download the Community Helpers card packet.

I also used them for a Roll, Count and Color Community Helpers dice game. 

You can run off a few of each kind of community helper, and give students a choice of which one they want to color for the dice game, or you can choose whatever community helper you are working on, and give each child the same one.

Before you begin, have students point to each number. As a whole group, count to 12. Explain to students that whatever number they roll, is the section that they color.

Demonstrate how you roll one die first, and then color numbers 1-6. If they’ve already rolled that number, they lose their turn.

When students have completed those sections, they roll 2 dice, and then add them together to get numbers 7-12 to color.

The child who colors all of the numbered sections first, or has the most numbers colored when the timer rings, is the winner.

After you explain the game, have students choose a partner to play with.

Remind them that they should write their name on their paper, as well as trace and write the name of their community helper.

Click on the link to view/download the Roll and Color the Community Helpers Dice Game.

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful, and be sure to pop by tomorrow for more community helper activities!

"Books are not men, and yet they are alive.  They are man's memory and his aspiration; the link between his present and his past; the tools he builds with." -Stephen V. Benet